1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electron source plate in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are arranged in matrix and an image-forming apparatus such as a display apparatus using the electron source plate.
2. Related Background Art
Up to now, there have been known two types of electron-emitting devices, a thermionic source and a cold cathode electron source. The cold cathode electron source includes a field emission device (FE device), a metal/insulating-layer/metal device (MIM device), a surface conduction electron-emitting device, and the like.
The present applicant has made a large number of proposals related to electron-emitting devices and its applications up to now and describes a part of them.
Device formation using an inkjet method is described in detail in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 09-102271 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,896 A) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-251665 (EP 936652 A1). An example in which these devices are arranged in an XY-matrix shape is described in detail in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 64-031332 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 07-326311. Further, a wiring forming method is described in detail in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 08-185818 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,831,387 A, U.S. Pat. No. 6,087,770 A, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,137,298 A) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 09-050757. A driving method is described in detail in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 06-342636 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,455,597 A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,659,329 A, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,403 A) and the like.
Also, a structure of a surface conduction electron-emitting device, its fabricating method, and the like are described in detail in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 07-235255 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,169,356 B, U.S. Pat. No. 6,344,711 B, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,384,541 B) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2903295 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,179,678 B and U.S. Pat. No. 6,246,168 B).
Hereinafter, a summary of the surface conduction electron-emitting device disclosed in the above publications will be briefly described.
As schematically shown in FIG. 13A or 13B, the above surface conduction electron-emitting device includes a pair of device electrodes 2 and 3 on a substrate 1 which are opposed to each other and an electroconductive film 4 which is connected to the device electrodes and has partially an electron-emitting region 5.
The above surface conduction electron-emitting device has a simple structure is fabricated easily and thus has an advantage that a large number of devices can be arranged and formed over a large area. Therefore, various applications for which the characteristic is utilized have been studied. For example, there are given an electron source plate in which a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are connected by matrix wiring and an image-forming apparatus such as a display apparatus using such an electron source plate.
A structural example of the electron source plate in which a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are connected by matrix wiring is shown in FIG. 14. In FIG. 14, reference numeral 21 denotes a substrate, 22 and 23 denote device electrodes, 24 denotes column wirings (lower wirings), 25 denotes an insulating layer, 26 denotes row wirings (upper wirings), and 27 denotes an electroconductive film (device film).
The above electron source plate has a structure in which the plurality of column wirings 24 are formed on the substrate 21, the plurality of row wirings 26 are formed on the column wirings 24 through the insulating layer 25, electron-emitting devices including an electrode pair (device electrodes 22 and 23) each are provided in the vicinity of each cross point of both the wirings, one of the electrode pair (device electrode 23) is connected to the column wiring 24, and the other thereof (device electrode 22) is connected to the row wiring 26 through a contact hole provided in the insulating layer 25.